In September 2017, a group of Jamaican fisherman were stopped and their boat was sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard. They were then held for over a month in inhumane conditions, including being forced to strip naked, clothed in paper-thin coveralls, and chained to the deck of Coast Guard ships. They were denied communication with their families, access to shelter, basic sanitation, proper food, and medical care.
To obtain redress for the fishermen, we filed a lawsuit in federal court against the United States and the head of the Coast Guard. Our case, Weir v. United States, seeks damages and a court order protecting our clients so they can once fish in the international waters around Jamaica without getting harassed by the Coast Guard. For more information on this case, you can read more information at the link here.
We also filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in May 2019 to learn more about the Coast Guard’s protocol regarding the sinking of ships in international waters suspected of having drugs.
We received the Coast Guard’s final production in January 2021 and we dismissed the case in March 2021.
